Messages - cheryl j

Ok, I think I see what you mean now. Based on the way people behave, it would be fair to say that drugs like alcohol and opiates hijack the system, since people who develop an addiction spend more and more time time seeking and taking that drug, and less and less time on activities and personal interactions that previously gave them happiness or satisfaction.

I'm not sure you can lump all drugs in that category, since depressed people who take antidepressants often return to those activities, or even seek out new ones. You seem to be taking the position that if nature has decreed someone be miserable, than miserable they should be, because that is authentic.

CBT, meditation, exercise, even a major change in environment and routine can also alter brain states and neurochemistry, but some people may need a "priming of the pump" with a medication to initiate those things.

I think your definition of "authentic" is ambiguous and problematic here. At first I thought you were referring to emotions genuinely experienced as opposed to someone pretending to mimic an emotional state (ie smiling when you are not really happy, laughing at a joke that you don't actually find funny etc.) But you seem to be referring to emotional states induced or suppressed by drugs. I'm not sure, however, there is any real difference, though, subjectively, between emotional states that occur from normal brain chemistry or other chemicals. For example, the experience of panic, or the reactions displayed, might be identical, whether it is induced by some perceived threat, or an injection of adrenaline.

Interestingly, it does seem to be a specific kind of brain function, not just a general cognitive ability. My mother has dementia, and I suspect it might be frontotemporal dementia. She doesn't exhibit a lot of the behaviors that are characteristic of Alzheimer patients. Her short term memory is pretty good, and she's oriented to time and place, doesn't get lost, knows the names of common every day objects, etc. She has a lot of trouble with abstract thinking and language comprehension, especially grammatically complex sentences.

But one really strange symptom she has had, is loss of empathy, as well as a strange inability to see the world from someone else's point of view. She has a really hard time imagining or knowing what others know and don't know. For example, she would explain to me how to use the garden hose, or operate the washing machine, or which way to turn on the street I grew up on. These things almost present like memory problems, but they are oddly specific to this "point of view" problem. When ordering in a restaurant, she will read the entire description of what she wants to the waitress despite the fact the waitress obviously works there and knows what is on the menu. I don't think she is intentionally mean, but doesn't seem to understand why something she says might be rude or hurtful, and it can be embarrassing in public.

It would be interesting to research what part of the brain is responsible for interpreting other people's thoughts or feelings or intentions. I know with babies, studies show they develop "theory of mind" at specific point in their development. I think it is around 7 months.

Maybe that's why they invented the concept of the subconscious, because can we become partially aware of these responses, or override, or select between programs, and because some learned responses can become automatic as well.

A lot of the research in this area is based on "priming" experiments in which subtle cues are statistically shown to affect people's decisions. Priming experiments seem so silly, you almost wonder how anyone gets funding for them when you read the titles, and yet they generate some really interesting and often disturbing results about why people make the choices they do.

But getting back to the original question about brain washing, Stockholme syndrome is an interesting phenomenon, because it does seem so irrational. Here is a description of the event for which it was named:On August 23rd, 1973 two machine-gun carrying criminals entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. Blasting their guns, one prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson announced to the terrified bank employees “The party has just begun!” The two bank robbers held four hostages, three women and one man, for the next 131 hours. The hostages were strapped with dynamite and held in a bank vault until finally rescued on August 28th.

After their rescue, the hostages exhibited a shocking attitude considering they were threatened, abused, and feared for their lives for over five days. In their media interviews, it was clear that they supported their captors and actually feared law enforcement personnel who came to their rescue. The hostages had begun to feel the captors were actually protecting them from the police. One woman later became engaged to one of the criminals and another developed a legal defense fund to aid in their criminal defense fees. Clearly, the hostages had “bonded” emotionally with their captors."

There are explanations involving evolutionary biology, as well as other kinds of psychology. There seems to be a gradual re-norming, in which the absence of abusive behavior, after intense exposure to it, is seen as an act of kindness.

Stockholme syndrome may also explain why some women stay in abusive relationships.

I think I read that nicotine is a bug repellent which is why tobacco plants have it. On the other hand, a green house owner once told me that cigarette smoke hurts tomato plants. That is the only cigarette/plant related information I have.